My name is Monty and I'm a Philosophy undergraduate studying at University of Birmingham. I passed A-Level Philosophy with an A* and these are my notes after having been rigorously updated and rewritten for clarity here to help the next generation of A-level Philosophy students achieve!
My name is Monty and I'm a Philosophy undergraduate studying at University of Birmingham. I passed A-Level Philosophy with an A* and these are my notes after having been rigorously updated and rewritten for clarity here to help the next generation of A-level Philosophy students achieve!
Included are a collection of A/A+ grade essays covering the following subjects from AQA Philosophy specification 7172:
Hedonistic Utilitarianism
Aristotelian Virtue Ethics
Kantian Deontological Ethics
Meta-Ethics
Concept of God
Teleological Arguments
Ontological Arguments
Problem of Evil
Religious Language
Property Dualism
Substance Dualism
Essay Plans
Included is a full pack of notes for all topics under AQA A-Level Philosophy, specification 7172. These notes clearly explain the main concepts, the objections to the argument and in most cases counters to the objections. Furthermore, also included is a collection of essay plans. I passed Philosophy with an A* and am now studying philosophy as an undergraduate at the University of Birmingham and these are my own notes and essays to help the next generation of students do the same! If there any omissions in the notes please do get in touch and I will send an updated copy.
Included:
Full explanations of the philosophical topics listed in the specification
Criticisms and occasionally counter-criticism of the topics
A collection of essay plans
An assortment of ungraded essays
*Meta-Ethics Not Included
Full set of A* grade notes for Virtue Ethics for AQA Philosophy 7172
‘The good’ for human beings: the meaning of Eudaimonia as the ‘final end’ and the relationship between Eudaimonia and pleasure.
The function argument and the relationship between virtues and function.
Aristotle’s account of virtues and vices: virtues as character traits/dispositions; the role of education/habituation in the development of a moral character; the skill analogy; the importance of feelings; the doctrine of the mean and its application to particular virtues.
Moral responsibility: voluntary, involuntary and non-voluntary actions.
The relationship between virtues, actions and reasons and the role of practical reasoning/practical wisdom.
Issues including:
whether Aristotelian virtue ethics can give sufficiently clear guidance about how to act
clashing/competing virtues
the possibility of circularity involved in defining virtuous acts and virtuous persons in terms of each other
whether a trait must contribute to Eudaimonia in order to be a virtue; the relationship between the good for the individual and moral good.
A full set of A* Grade notes for specification 7172 AQA Philosophy
Immanuel Kant’s account of what is meant by a ‘good will’.
The distinction between acting in accordance with duty and acting out of duty.
The distinction between hypothetical imperatives and categorical imperatives.
The first formulation of the categorical imperative (including the distinction between a contradiction in conception and a contradiction in will).
The second formulation of the categorical imperative.
Issues, including:
clashing/competing duties
not all universalisable maxims are distinctly moral; not all non-universalisable maxims are immoral
the view that consequences of actions determine their moral value
Kant ignores the value of certain motives, eg love, friendship, kindness
morality is a system of hypothetical, rather than categorical, imperatives (Philippa Foot).
A* Grade A Level AQA Philosophy Utilitarianism Notes for specification 7172 following every point on the specification.
Utilitarianism
The question of what is meant by ‘utility’ and ‘maximising utility’, including:
Jeremy Bentham’s quantitative hedonistic utilitarianism (his utility calculus)
John Stuart Mill’s qualitative hedonistic utilitarianism (higher and lower pleasures) and his ‘proof’ of the greatest happiness principle
non-hedonistic utilitarianism (including preference utilitarianism)
act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism.
Issues, including:
whether pleasure is the only good (Nozick’s experience machine)
fairness and individual liberty/rights (including the risk of the ‘tyranny of the majority’)
problems with calculation (including which beings to include)
issues around partiality
whether utilitarianism ignores both the moral integrity and the intentions of the individual.
Included are a complete set of moral philosophy notes for the ‘normative ethics’ part of the current AQA A-Level Specification. These notes are indepth explaining each individual ethical theory, followed by its objections and the counters to the objections. I achieved an A* in philosophy and these are my notes, published to help the next generation of A-Level Philosophy students. If there are any omissions in the notes please do let me know and I will send an updated copy free of charge.
Included are a complete set of notes detailing the key concepts and criticisms within the Philosophy of Religion module of the current specification for AQA A-Level Philosophy. I passed A-Level Philosophy with an A* and these notes helped me do it, so I have published them to help the next generation of A-Level Philosophy Students! If there are any omissions please do let me know and I will send an updated copy free of charge.
These notes contain a complete breakdown of A-Level AQA Philosophy of Mind from the current specification. Clearly explaining each concept, their criticisms and offering counters to the criticisms. I achieved an A* with these notes and am publishing them to help the next generation of students! If there are any omissions please do let me know and I will update them and send an updated copy free of charge.
Included is a full pack of notes for all topics under Epistemology for AQA A-Level Philosophy, specification 7172. These notes clearly explain the main concepts in Epistemology, the objections to the argument and in most cases counters to the objections. I passed Philosophy with an A* and these are my notes to help the next generation of students do the same! If there any omissions in the notes please do get in touch and I will send an updated copy.
